Batter mechanism for simulated game



Dec. 18, 1962 INVENTOR.

George E. Lindmun BY United States Patent ()fifice 3,069,165 Patented Dec. 18, 1962 BATTER MECHANISM FOR SIMULATED GAME George E. Lindman, Mill Valley, Califi, assignor to Mag- Powr Games, Inc, Sausalito, Califi, a corporation of California Filed Jan. 11, 1961, Ser. No. 82,031 Claims priority, application Great Britain Oct. 5, 1960 3 Claims. (Cl. 273-89) This invention relates to game pieces for simulated games and more particularly relates to a new 'and improved batter mechanism for use in a toy baseball game of the type played with magnetized players adapted to be moved slidably over the surface of a game board under influence of operating magnets manipulated beneath the game board as described in my pending application entitled Magnetic Game, Serial No. 851,487, filed October 5, 1959.

The present invention defines a batter assembly adapted for mounting on a baseball game board. The batter is mounted for pivotal movement with respect to the board for controlled swingable bat movement from a ready or battery position to a follow-through position. The assembly is manually actuated by a turn-knob obscurely located beneath the game board and associated with the batter figurine.

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a batter assembly for a simulated baseball game manually controllable by the human contestant in a manner closely analogous to the way an actual baseball player controls his bat.

More specifically, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a batter mechanism which imparts a feeling of weight for the miniature bat to the human contestant thereby enabling him to control the bat from ready or battery position to follow-through position with a greater sensitivity than heretofore found in miniature baseball games.

To accomplish this object a coil spring is provided which normally biases the bat in ready or battery position requiring the contestant to swing the bat against spring tension. ,The spring tends to slow the swing of the bat permitting the contestant to time his swing to bunt or pull the ball to right or left field. Additionally, the figurine can be made to waggle the bat at the pitcher in an attempt to confuse him.

A feature and advantage of the invention resides in the fact that when the batters swing is completed, the spring mechanism will return the bat to ready position thereby clearing the third base line and allowing for plays between third base and home plate.

Another object and advantage of the present invention is to provide a batter mechanism arranged to prevent the human contestant from unrealistically hitting home runs at will. Accordingly, the manually actuated turnknob is connected to a pinion gear which meshes with and rotates a large gear attached to the pivotal figurine. This gear arrangement causes the rate of rotation of the batter to be substantially less than the rate of rotation of the turnknob. Accordingly, the human contestant must learn to coordinate these different rates of rotation if the bat is to deliver a home-run swing. This coordination requires a measure of skill and prevents the ability to hit home runs at Wiil.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view partially broken away of a batter assembly of the present invention mounted in a game board.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view partially broken away of the embodiment of FIG. 1 in which the figurine is not shown.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the

batter indicated at 3 is located immediately to the left of home plate. The batter 3 is a figurine simulating a baseball player in ready or cocked position at bat and carrying a downwardly inclining bat 5 preferably formed of wood, but which may be made from any number of other suitable materials such as plastics.

The figurine 3 is mounted on a pedestal 7 which forms the top of an axle 9 journalled through both housing 11 and the playing board 13. .The housing 11 is attached to the board by means such as screws 15 and includes a raised circular portion 17 arranged to be snugly received into a corresponding aperture formed in game board 13.

The lower end of the axle 9 is provided with a batter driving mechanism, best seen in FIG. 2, and operable to rotate batter 3. This driving mechanism includes a toothed gear sector 23 having a vertically extending sleeve portion 10 centrally mounted thereon and into which keyshaped axle 9 is removably fitted. A pinion gear 29 is in meshed engagement with gear 23 and a turnknob 31 is attached to the pinion 29 for rotation therewith. Resilient means, such as a coil spring 19, is anchored at one end 21 to gear sector 23 and at its other end 25 to a slot 27 formed in stationarily mounted housing 11.

When the knob 31 is rotated clockwise, pinion 29 drives gear sector 23, thereby rotating the batter 3 and associated hat 5 counter-clockwise from a ready to the followthrough position illustrated by the dotted line bat position 5a shown in FIG. 2 causing coil spring 19 to load so that the bat is swung against spring tension. Release of knob 31 causes spring 19 to return the figurine and bat to battery or ready position by forcing rotation of gear sector 23 until it abuts stop 33 on housing 11.

Housing 11 includes a top 11a removable from the body of the housing 11 to provide access to the Working parts. The top is fastened to the housing body, preferably made of pliable plastic, by pressing stirrups 35 carried by top 11a into registry with bosses 37 protruding from the sides of the housing body 11.

Although I have described the present invention in some detail for purposes of illustration and example, it is understood that various changes and modifications may be practiced within the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A batter assembly for playing a ball game by moving a player unit to hit a miniature ball comprising: a game board; a housing attached to the underside of said game board; a figurine pivotally mounted in said housing through said game board and holding a downwardlyoutwardly inclining bat; a batter driving mechanism in said housing; a manually actuatable knob attached to said housing and associated with said driving mechanism for movement of said figurine and bat from a cooked to a follow-through position; a spring attached to said drive mechanism and a stationary part of said housing; said spring normally biasing said figurine and bat in cocked position whereby the bat is rotated from cocked to follow-through position against spring tension and is returned from follow-through to cocked position by spring tension when said turnknob is released.

2. A batter assembly for attachment to a game board for playing a game of miniature baseball comprising: a housing mountable to the.underside of said game board; said housing having an upper cylindrical portion adapted to pass through an aperture formed in the game board; a figurine simulating a baseball player holding an outwardly-downwardly inclining baseball bat; said figurine having a cylindrical base portion for registry with the cylindrical portion of said housing at a point co-planar with the upper surface of said game board; an axle vertically depending from the cylindrical base portion; a toothed gear in said housing attached to said axle; a pinion in meshed engagement with said gear; a manually actuatable turnknob rotatably mounted on the underside of said housing associated with said pinion; a compression spring having one end anchored to said gear and another end anchored to the stationary housing normally biasing said figurine and bat in cocked position; stop means on said housing registrable with said gear to limit the degree of arcuate movement of said figurine to correspond with the normal swing of a human baseball batter.

3. A batter assembly according to claim 1 and Wherein said driving mechanism comprises: a gear sector attached to said figurine and a gear attached to said 'knob, said gear sector and gear being horizontally disposed in meshed engagement with each other and the diameters References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,044,679 Mattoni Nov. 19, 1912 1,285,132 Grimes Nov. 19, 1918 1,960,829 Rojahn May 29, 1934 1,966,748 Allen July 17, 1934 2,534,468 Mitchell Dec. 19, 1950 

